The oil economy will come to an end at some point. This, we know. We don’t know too much about the details of that inevitability, such as when it could happen, or what would cause it. Up until now, most figured it’d be from running out. But according to this video explanation from Bloomberg, the electric car could kill – or at least severely damage – the oil industry sooner than you think.

(This video accompanied a Bloomberg report from back in February, but it’s important to have the visualization to back it up, and also, someone just sent it to me and I just saw it now, so let’s all just watch it together and LEARN! Learning is fun.)

The oil industry is a lot more sensitive to price fluctuations and demands than you might initially think. Even a relatively temporary dip in prices, like the one we’re experiencing now, can send shockwaves reverberating through the entire industry. In North Dakota alone, as oil prices cratered, the profit margins became razor-thin, and then non-existent. Now the “North Dakota oil bust,” as it’s being called, has caused a massive hole in the state budget.

Electric cars, like the Tesla Model S, may be expensive now, but they’re gettingcheaper. We might see massive adoption rates, or the public may reject them. We don’t know. But if they are adopted on even a relatively small scale, it could have a massive impact upon that fragile oil economy.

And, as the video notes, that could have a massive impact on the world at large, and not just in terms of economics. Vast swaths of international foreign policy have been constructed upon where oil is – and isn’t – coming from.